After 8 days in throes of volatility and weakness, bond markets are finally catching a small break today. For now, it's no more than a half-hearted pause in an otherwise determined trend--the kind of consolidation that's a necessary part of market movement.
To reiterate a fairly constant point over the past 2 weeks, bond markets are not moving on domestic economic data or other fundamentals. Motivation has had much more to do with tradeflow momentum and technical levels--basically the "stuff" that's left if you take away considerations for the economy and inflation; trading for trading's sake.
After moving into stronger territory overnight, bond markets completely ignored the weaker-than-expected Jobless Claims data. The rest of the fluctuations have been mostly in line with stock market fluctuations. Both MBS and Treasuries have retreated inside yesterday's ranges, but remain in positive territory vs closing levels.
MBS | FNMA 3.0 98-05 : +0-03 | FNMA 3.5 101-29 : +0-02 | FNMA 4.0 105-06 : +0-02 |
Treasuries | 2 YR 0.5480 : -0.0160 | 10 YR 2.5250 : -0.0110 | 30 YR 3.2600 : -0.0100 |
Pricing as of 9/11/14 12:04PMEST |